Travel diary
Shiny Japan 2005
Day one - August 07

After a not so spectacular internship at a biotech company in Taiwan for about a month and short trips to Kaohsiung, Taichung and Hsinchu visiting relatives I was again on my way to JAPAN. Even though it was the second trip to Japan so far -- just one year after the first -- I think was still excited about it. The hot weather in Taiwan (and later in Japan too) made me feel somehow too tired to explore 19 days full packed with sightseeing, visiting friends and above all planning the whole thing, but I still made it. My aunt just dropped me at the airport and let me alone at the airport in Taoyuan, Taiwan. It was kind of my bro's girlfriend (who lives near the airport) coming by later on and saying goodbye to me.

Well, I somehow made it to Narita at 7:30 pm Tokyo time and I was astonished I got through the immigration that fast (I went so fast, maybe I was afraid of lining up like last year). It is easy to pass the immigration if you are Austrian citizen.... headed to the Keisei counter after trying to reach my Tokyo friend on the phone (without luck) and standed in the crowded train for 90 minutes all the way to Nippori (1000 Yen, cheapest fare available). Changed train for Minamisenju, maybe one of the cheapest spots for tourists with unemployed people hanging around. I managed to get to the hotel at 10 pm without looking into the map after the flight (wow) and somehow felt exhausted. So I was kinda shocked when the hotel owner told me that there was NO room free today even though I did reserve it beforehand. Furthermore the guy didn't speak any English, so I had to stick to my lousy Japanese I have learnt in my last 3 years. It quite took an effort to understand him and after some phone calls of the owner with a employee who could speak English and the employee with me (in between I called my Tokyo friend who I finally reached with my last yen coins) I decided to stay at my friend's house on the other side of Tokyo and fix the problem the day after.

The employee on the phone actually was not willing to admit any faults with my reservation but because I didn't really complain she somehow got nicer. I said "There is nothing we can do about it, so I just stay at friend's home for today and we solve the room issue tomorrow) I'm sure she was afraid of being charged for anything and didn't want any troubles. (She even apologized for the misunderstanding afterwards which is another story I might tell later). Waiting for a hotel room anywhere else for the night was too much for me... so I got onto the next train and figured out how to get to my friend's house on the train with my supa dupa Tokyo train map for the whole region I bought last year in a 100 yen store in Akihabara. It must have been around 11 or 11:15 pm when I got there. My friend just got back from Hiroshima and we had a lot to talk about... lots to catch up for a year. You can't say how happy I was to see her, even though the first day could have gone much smoother. It was her birthday though... strange celebration.